---
title: Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas)
scientific_name: Chelonia mydas
common_name: Green Sea Turtle
taxon: Sea turtles
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-31T15:20:33.520Z
updated: 2026-08-18T20:04:31.352Z
tags: Green Sea Turtle, Chelonia mydas, Sea turtles, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/reptiles/sea-turtles/green-sea-turtle
---

# Green Sea Turtle (*Chelonia mydas*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Sea turtles (*Chelonioidea*)
- **Size:** up to 1.5 m
- **Weight:** 68 - 190 Kg
- **Depth:** 1-40 m
- **Max age:** 90 yrs
- **Diet:** Herbivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Seagrass meadows and reef, resting under ledges
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric, Temperature-dependent sex
- **CITES:** Appendix I
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- smooth oval shell with four pairs of side plates, olive to dark brown
- single pair of scales between the eyes, which distinguishes it from the hawksbill
- blunt rounded beak with a serrated edge, not the hooked beak of a hawksbill
- shell up to 1.5 m

A hard-shelled reptile with a shell to 1.5 m (5 ft) and a weight up to 190 kg (420 lb), olive to dark brown, with a blunt serrated beak. The name is not about the shell: the fat under it is green, colored by the seagrass the animal spends its life eating.

Adults are vegetarians, and almost uniquely so among sea turtles. They crop seagrass blades rather than pulling them up, returning to the same patches so the regrowth stays young and digestible - grazing that maintains the meadow rather than mining it. Hatchlings and juveniles eat animals and switch diet as they grow.

The sex of a clutch is set by the temperature of the sand, not by chromosomes. Below about 29 C a nest produces males, above it females, and the transition spans barely two degrees. On beaches that have warmed, clutches now run over 90 percent female, which is one of the more direct ways a changing climate reaches an animal.

A female returns to nest on the beach where she hatched, after decades at sea and often thousands of kilometers away, navigating in part by reading the local slant of the Earth's magnetic field. She lays several clutches in a season and then may not breed again for years.

## Also known as

- **English:** green sea turtle, Common Green Sea Turtle, green turtle
- **Arabic:** Salihufat albahr alkhadra', سلحفاة البحر الخضراء, الخضراء السلحفاة
- **Hebrew:** Tzav yam yarok, צב ים ירוק, צב-ים ירוק
- **French:** tortue franche, Tortue comestible, tortue verte
- **Italian:** tartaruga verde
- **German:** Suppenschildkröte
- **Spanish:** tortuga verde, Tortuga Blanca de Mar, Tortuga-marina verde-del Atlántico
- **Greek:** Πράσινη θαλασσοχελώνα, πράσινη χελώνα
- **Turkish:** yeşil deniz kaplumbağası, Yeşil deniz kaplumbağasi, yesil kaplumbaga
- **Portuguese:** Falso Carei, Tartaruga Verde, Aruanã
- **Dutch:** Soepschildpad, groene zeeschildpad
- **Polish:** żółw jadalny, żółw zielony
- **Japanese:** Ao umigame, アオウミガメ, クロウミガメ
- **Chinese:** 海龜, 石龜, 綠海龜
- **Ukrainian:** Зелена черепаха, Черепаха морська зелена
- **Russian:** Зеленая черепаха
- **AF:** Groen Seeskilpad
- **BG:** zelenа morskа kostenurkа, Зелена морска костенурка
- **BOS:** Zelena kornjača
- **CHA:** Haggan
- **CYM:** Crwbanod Môr Gwyrdd, crwban môr gwyrdd
- **FIJ:** Vonu Dina
- **GLA:** turtanan glas, turtar glas
- **HR:** Zelena kornjača, zelena želva
- **ID:** Penyu Hijau
- **LT:** žaliasis vėžlys
- **MLG:** Fano Omby, Fano Zaty
- **MRI:** Honu
- **SIN:** Gal Kasbawa, Kola Kasbawa, Weli Kasbawa
- **SL:** orjaška črepaha
- **SQI:** breshka e gjelbërt e detit, Breshkë e gjelbër
- **SW:** Nyamba
- **TAM:** Pachchai Amai, Pera Amai
- **URD:** Sabz Kachwa
- **XHO:** ufudo lelwandle
- **ZUL:** ufudu Iwasolwandle

## Scientific synonyms

- *Chelonia agassizii* Bocourt, 1868
- *Chelonia japonica*
- *Chelonia mydas agassizii* (Bocourt, 1868)
- *Chelonia mydas mydas* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Chelonia viridis*
- *Testudo mydas* Linnaeus, 1758

## Range

Gulf of Mexico, Kenya, Mediterranean Sea, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, Western Indian Ocean

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/reptiles/sea-turtles/green-sea-turtle)*
*Updated: August 18, 2026*